Ali Rizwan said:
Hi every body,
I am a 38 years old male from Pakistan with a wife and 3 kids. We have got Landing permission and now I am thinking to move to Canada. Please allow me to tell you my background in details. I have 15+ years experience in banking industry (Corporate Banking + Planning) with one of the largets global bank. Currently I am on a management level position. The only reason for me & my wife to move to Canada is better furture for our kids in terms of education, security, social values etc. My wife is the stay at home mom so I will be the only person to work. I would appreciate if any one of you could give us thier opinion/suggestions/information on our decision to move to canada. Please note that I am assuming to start from scratch when we move there.
1) Banking Jobs in Canada (in terms of my brief resume above)& where, how difficult it is, do I need any certification? .
2) Tetative Salaray that I can earn even as a starter.
3) Schoole advice for my kids.
I am sorry for this long statement.
Godd bless you all.
Regards
Hi Ali Rizwan,
I might be able to make a few suggestions and compare a good private sector Pakistani living with similar one in Canada since i might have several factors similar to you though there are many differences.
Quick background, i work in IT, close to a decade of experience in a specialized area and worked for several MCN's in Pakistan. Moved to Canada on a work permit being offered job from a company looking for the particular experience. I also have 3 kids aged between 2 and 8.
A) Canada is notorious for being obsessed with Canadian experience. Unless they FAIL to find local people skilled in some domain OR there is a shortage of people in some area, your Pakistani or experience from ANY WHERE will not be as valued as expected. Unfortunately the most affected professions that i see because of this are Accounting, MBAs, Finance et al since there is no particular shortage of people in these professions in Canada and hence people have a hard time even getting into those professions. I have seen VPs from back home considering themselves lucky finding first job at an entry level position.
B) It is hard to live with a single salary, specially if you have been making a couple hundred thousand in Pak. Here most of the stuff goes away in Taxes and you would be forced to plan and be careful even with small expenses.
C) Banking, accounting, finance or HR kind of domains usually need awareness of Canadian laws and often require certifications to be eligible to work here. It is not uncommon for a family to have a hard time finding first job - even up to a year. So usual advice is to bring in enough savings to be able to survive a year and be prepared to do odd jobs if you have to. I honestly cannot quote a starting salary - because honestly i am not even sure if they would accept you directly for a banking role.
But average Canadian annual wages are around 46k CAD.
D) Public schooling is good and mostly free (4 and above years old) and you might have to pay a few hundred dollars a year for misc expenses. For kids who are younger day care or pre school is damn expensive (35-40 CAD a day). Compared to Pakistan standards, children enjoy study more, have almost no burden. I believe co curricular and personality elements are very good - academia is just okay. It will be next to impossible for a child having studied here for a few years to fit into system like Pakistan. There are virtually no exams here of the kind we are used to in Pak.
E) Health care is mostly public funded but in almost half the provinces you need to get insurance privately for the first 3 months. DO IT. It is damn expensive otherwise and being public the waiting times are insane for getting any kind of treatment unless your life is at stake. This is a bigger shock for people with private corporate insurances in Pakistan - getting pretty good service at top private hospitals in Pak and far less waiting times as compared to Canada.
If you ask for my advice, you should come alone for a while (may be not leaving your job in home country and come on leave - until you find a job here). Try lining up a few interviews in advance by contacting remotely, come here and utilize that time.
You should only bring your family once you have an okay job.
Honestly, i haven't had to look for job at all so far because i already came with a job and it is going on well. But the situation of others that i have seen, it is definitely a hard beginning for close to a year.
Hope that helps.